We've Both Come Back Home
by Lilac Notepad
Summary: A few months after the event of CA:TWS, Sam and Steve are approached by Maria Hill to help rebuild S.H.I.E.L.D. Fury comes back with Natasha from Barbados. Natasha and Sharon are reunited, Steve is confused, and, as usual, Natasha is hard to figure out. I write Romanogers stories without Sharon bashing :)


Steve and Sam had been following empty leads on the Winter Soldier for months now, Natasha's file being the most helpful thing thus far. Honestly, it felt like running in circles, even more so ending up back in D.C with Sam after the hit they tracked to the UK turned out to be a dead end. He tried immersing himself into the hunt for his best friend, needing the distraction since S.H.I.E.L.D. had fallen and he no longer had missions to fall back on. When that kept falling through, it became harder and harder to keep his spirits up. Sam seemed to notice and he suggested that they go out for drinks after they had finished unpacking. They settled on a bar not too far from Sam's house since they were both still slightly jet-lagged from their flight.

Sam loosened up after a few beers, laughing and joking with him at a table in the corner of the restaurant when he stopped in the middle of a sentence, gaze landing behind his shoulder at the door. Maria Hill walked in, eyes finding them and purposely striding in their direction. She slid into the booth next to Sam and he awkwardly cleared his throat and greeted her.

"I had a feeling you two were here," she said, eyes sparkling as she waved a server over and ordered herself a drink.

"And I assume you're here because Nick needs a favor." His tone suggests that it's not a question.

"Ah," she sighed, setting her glass down, "It seems we are skipping over the pleasantries. Well, Rogers, your intuition is strong. We're working on rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D., recruiting the agents that were innocent. Agents that were on our side, not Hydra's. As you can probably figure, that list is slim. It would be nice of you to come in, and Wilson too. You've both been an asset in the past."

Steve chuckled. "An asset? Really? Sure, I'd expect that from Fury, but not from you, Maria."

Sam cleared his throat again.

"Sorry. I don't usually do recruitments. Natasha's always been the one to do those, but since Fury's in Barbados and their roles are reversed, well," she paused, licking her lips.

He softened at the mention of Natasha, and that seemed to be her goal. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Sam smirking at him. "That's good. He needs to apologize to her. If he's sincere, I'm sure she'll consider helping him."

Maria raised an eyebrow, "Are you?"

"No. Not at all. But Natasha's the strongest person I know, and I'd never seen her cry before. When she did, it was over Fury, and then he didn't trust her enough to tell her he was alive and I think that's part of the reason she left instead of going with you guys to Europe."

"Yeah. I don't think he ever really believed she was working with Hydra, not even for a second. Nick—He just has a hard time showing he cares for people."

"You guys are getting off topic," Sam interrupts, "Seriously, I'm really tired of Steve working her into every conversation he has."

She stood, putting money on the table for her drink and producing two burner phones, "He's right. So, will you two think about it? I'll give you a call when Fury comes backs and we can talk it out more."

Maria leaves, and they do, too. That night, he tosses and turns in Sam's guest bedroom, having too much to think about to fall asleep.

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He debates with Sam over breakfast about whether or not to accept Maria's offer. Debate doesn't seem like the right word, though. It was more of the two of them apathetically pointing out pros and cons, even though they both knew that they were doing it. Just as Sam moves to the counter, his burner phone rings and he pauses and glances around as if to see if his kitchen had been bugged. Honestly, he wouldn't put it past S.H.I.E.L.D.

He could hear Maria's voice over the phone. "Word. Meeting's today at noon inside Lambert's Farming supply."

"Lambert's Farming Supply?"

"Oh, newbie, it's not _actually _a tractor store." Sam rolls his eyes even though Maria can't see him.

"Whatever. We'll be there. Do we need to suit up or any—" The line cut off in the middle of his sentence. He pulled the phone back in front of his face and shook his head.

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"Heads up, man," Sam says as he falls into step beside him, "Your nurse is here."

He internally cringes as he meets Sharon Carter's eyes, smiling at each other and ignoring the thought of their awkward coffee date. _So much for the warning, Sam. _He'd known that she'd be here, of course she would, she wasn't a dirty agent. Still, he just didn't mentally prepare himself for the sense of weirdness between them. Natasha had left, and he called her because he'd wanted the distraction. Long story short, she'd thanked him but said they should stay friends because it was weird to her. He gets where she was coming from. He'd sort of had a relationship with her great aunt and he had been her mission at S.H.I.E.L.D. So he had smiled, nodded and said that it would be great to be friends. However, both of them have failed to keep in touch.

She was staring at the door on the other side of the moderately sized conference room and he was about to ask where everyone was at. He saw Maria and agents he hadn't met at the head of the table, but the rest of the seats were empty and Nick Fury was absent. The door swinging open spared him the effort. Natasha was on the other side of the door, Fury in tow, and then Sharon suddenly shrieked and ran at her, enveloping her in a hug that slightly knocked her backward with the force of it.

Her skin was a slightly darker shade, and her hair was shorter, still red with the ends fading into a light blonde. She'd left it in her natural hair state. They were still gripping each other's forearms, and Natasha was smiling widely at Sharon. "I've missed you."

"I missed you, too. How was Barbados?"

She sighed contentedly. "Paradise. I bought you a magnet."

"Really?" They both laughed.

Steve had a fleeting flashback to the conversation they had before she left.

"_Do me a favor? Call that nurse."_

Had she and Sharon talked about him? Did she ask him to ask her out because she had revealed she had a crush on him?

"Hey, soldier," she said, drawing him out of his thoughts. Before he could process it, she had moved and was now hugging him, too. It made him realize how much he missed her. _Hell, _how much he had missed hearing her voice. Then Fury called her name across the room, and she gave him a parting smile, squeezing his arm. She looked over her shoulder at him, and he wasn't expecting the way it made his chest tighten.

She'd left him alone with Sam and Sharon again. "You guys are friends."

It wasn't a question. He was just filling the silence.

"Yes," she laughed, "And did she set us up? Absolutely. She thinks she's Cupid, but she most certainly is not."

He laughed with her at that. It was sweet to him that she undermined him to get her friend a date. By the look she'd had glancing between him and Sharon, he was sure that she knew the outcome of their coffee date, if you could call it that. She'd looked at him like she had in Sam's guest bedroom again, and he wondered for the thousandth time why she insisted on trying to set him up.

He didn't have time to dwell on it, though, because Fury called the meeting to order. Through the debriefing, he didn't pay attention as much as he just stared at her.


End file.
